This Night

Chapter 250

Author's Note: Reviews aren't showing up on site, but they are in the email. So thank you! Thank you for the new reader's I am getting. OK, now on to our not so scripted fan fiction. Review please.

Rick's group:

Summer sat in the back with Jes and Joey and glanced out the window. "No walkers'," she said. "That's a good sign, right?"

"It could be," Rick answered as he glanced back at his oldest daughter.

"Or it could mean someone got here first," Jes answered.

"Way to keep morale up, Jes," Joey answered.

"I'm not a damn cheerleader," Jes answered. "I'm just pointing out the other side of the stick, you know the one that always pokes us in the ass?" Jes asked.

"We got Beth and Carol back, maybe our luck is changing," Ty said as he was driving.

"Washington was a dead end," Jes challenged.

"You're being awful quiet Michonne," Joey pointed out.

"Just thinking. When Jewel and I were at the church with the kids and Gabriel, Carl told Gabriel that you can't stay in one place to long. I don't believe that. I believe that there is a place for us, somewhere safe. Somewhere like the prison, we just have to find it. People can be out here to long, lose themselves. So, I'm hoping and praying to whoever is up there, that Noah's home is the safe haven we need," Michonne answered.

"If it's not? If the dead have taken over?" Jes asked. Noah glanced back at her. "It's a possibility Noah, and you have to be prepared for it."

"That's not something you can prepare for. No matter how hard you try," Rick told her. "How far out?" he asked Noah.

Noah bent over and looked at the mileage and then looked back at Rick. "About five miles."

Rick nodded as he pushed the button on his walkie talkie. "Jewel?"

"Rick? I'm here, go ahead," Jewel responded, relief evident in her voice.

"We're halfway there, just wanted to check the range," Rick told his wife.

"We can here you loud and clear," Jewel told him.

"Everyone doing alright?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, we're doing alright," Jewel answered. "We've come this far," she said.

Carol came on her radio. "Five hundred miles, maybe this is the easy part."

"Got to think we're due," Rick answered. "Give us twenty minutes to check in."

"If we don't here from you, some of us will come looking," Carol told him.

"In other words, she'll be tying me up inside the car so I won't come looking," Jewel told him. "Be careful."

"Copy that. Love you," Rick told her.

"Love you," Jewel answered.

Noah looked from his seat next to Tyreese. "I've been wanting to tell you something," he told Tyreese.

"What's that?" Tyreese answered.

"The trade. It was the right play. It worked, it did work. Just something else happened after," Noah answered.

"It went the way it had to. The way it was always going to," Tyreese answered.

"I never wanted to kill anybody before," Noah told him.

"I've wanted that. But it just made it so I didn't see anything except what I wanted. I wasn't facing it," Tyreese answered.

"Facing what?" Noah asked.

"What happened, what's going on. My dad always told Sasha, Lexi and me that it was our duty as citizens of the world to keep up with the news. When I was little and I was in his car, there were always those stories on the radio. Something happens 1,000 miles away or down the block. Some kind of horror I couldn't even wrap my head around. But he didn't change the channel, he didn't turn it off. He just kept listening, to face it. Keeping your eyes open. My dad always called that paying the high cost of living," Tyreese answered.

The rest of the car stayed silent as they listened to him. Noah looked over at him. I lost my dad in Atlanta. I think he would have liked yours. Still got a mom and a couple of twin brothers. I hope," Noah responded.

"I hope so too," Tyreese answered.

Noah looked at the speedometer again. "Two more miles."

Rick nodded as he leaned forward. "Alright, let's pull into the woods, we'll go on foot. Stay off the road."

"We don't have too," Noah insisted.

"Yeah, we do," Jes responded. "It's the smart thing to do kid. I know you hope this place is still standing, but we have to play it safe. Just in case," she told Noah.

Everyone remained silent as they pulled up to other abandoned cars. "This is good, through the trees it may just look like part of the wreck."

Summer turned her attention to a walker in a car behind Rick.

"It's this way," Noah said as he nodded toward the other direction.

Rick put his hand on Summer's shoulder. "Leave it," he instructed. "Come on," he instructed.

Michonne and Jes walked a bit ahead and came upon barbwire tired to trees to make a fence. "Your people do this?" Michonne asked.

"Wanted to, they must have," Noah answered.

Joey glanced around. "It's eerily quite," he said as he held down a piece of barbwire for Summer to go through.

"Ah!" Noah said as he wiped blood off his head.

"You alright?" Rick asked.

"Yeah, yeah," Noah answered.

Jes took out a rag. "Wipe it, blood attracts walkers', even that little amount," she told him as they continued walking.

Rick put his hand on Noah's shoulder as they got to the edge of the woods. "They have spotters? Snipers?" he questioned.

"We built a perch on a truck. Sometimes it's out front," Noah answered.

Joey and Summer looked and then looked back. "It's not there today," Joey answered.

Jes glanced at Rick before they crossed the road. They all glanced at the grandfather clock on the road.

"See, that's the one thing that's always made me curious about looters," Joey said. "There's hurricanes, fires, no power, and people break in and take big screen tv's, Someone really thought that a big old grandfather clock was a necessary item to be trying to loot for survival. It's a little big to be used as a weapon. Why not leave it in the house and strip it for parts? But no, lets take the big old thing out of the house and drag it down the road, struggle with it, and if a walker comes, let's hit him over the head with the thing. That would take at least two big guys like Ty," he told them.

"You've been out here to long," Summer informed him.

"We all have," Joey said as they took out the weapons and walked to the gate.

"Do you hear that?" Noah asked as he heard banging.

Summer took a breath. "Hold up," she said as she gripped the metal part of the fence and climbed up. She closed her eyes before she looked. "Please, please," she whispered to herself. She gripped the sides of the fence and opened her eyes as she took in the devastation. She willed herself not to cry as she shook her head and jumped down. "I'm sorry Noah…." she told him.

Noah looked at her before he climbed up and jumped over the fence.

"Damn it," Jes mumbled as she climbed up one side and followed him in, the others doing the same.

Noah started to walk a faster pace, the best that his leg would let him.

"Noah wait," Rick called out to him as he followed.

Noah stopped and put his hands on his head and broke down falling to the ground. The rest of them exchanged looks, most of them being crestfallen.

Joey reached over and pulled Summer into a hug.

Tyreese went over and put his hands on Noah's shoulder, who shrugged them off. "It's alright, you'll be with us now."

Jes looked down the street then down the other road.

Michonne turned her head and saw the walkers. "I've got them," she said, disappointment and anger in her voice.

Rick went over and bent down. "I'm sorry Noah, truly am. We should see if there's anything we can use, then head back."

"Then what?" Michonne asked. "They see us," she said as she brought out her sword.

Jes looked at Michonne knowing that she had held hope for this place. "Doesn't look like there's a whole lot left," Jes said.

"We still have to look, doesn't matter," Summer said as she pulled away from Joey's grip. She walked over to the stone that held the name of the area of houses. "Summer Place, talk about irony."

Rick went over and squeezed her shoulder. "It'll be alright," he told her.

"No dad, it won't," Summer told him. "It's never going to be alright," she answered as she wiped away the tears.

Jes glanced over at Joey. "You, Michonne and Summer do a sweep. Joey and I are going to have a look around."

Ty looked at Rick. "I'll stay with him."

Summer looked at Rick's radio. "You're going to have to tell them," she said solemnly.

Rick nodded as he hit the button on the radio. "Jewel?" he asked as he hated doing this.

"Rick? What's going on?" Jewel asked.

"It's gone, nothing's here," Rick told her as he looked at Summer.

"You coming back?" Jewel answered.

"We're going to do a real quick look around the place. Hold tight," Rick told his wife. "I love you."

"I love you too. We're not going anywhere," Jewel told him.

Rick nodded as he put the radio back in his belt.

Rick, Michonne and Summer's POV:

Michonne stepped on a glass framed shirt as Rick touched her arm. "Clean shirt," she told him.

"We'll figure it out," Rick told her.

Michonne nodded as she tilted her head slightly toward Summer who had her back turned to them. "We will," Michonne responded. "There's some garbage bags in the garage," she said as she walked away.

Summer bent down and picked up a baseball bat. "I hoped you know? But down deep inside, I knew it was going to be gone. But I didn't have the heart to say that in front of Noah, in front of Beth, in front of Mom or the kids. I knew I shouldn't believe, I knew it was to good to be true, but I did, just a slimmer, and it hurts. It shouldn't because I knew…I knew better, but it does," she told Rick not even looking up from the bat.

Rick bent down and looked at her. "I know it's getting harder to hold out for something good, to believe things will work out. I know better to tell you just to try to believe it, because you've seen so much of the horror we've tried to protect you, Carl, Lexi and the younger ones from. I wanted this to work out, and I let myself believe it," he told her as he squeezed her shoulder.

Summer glanced at Michonne then at Rick. "I killed Lizzie," she told him as she wiped the tears away. "I had fallen asleep, and when I woke up, Judith wasn't beside me. I had this feeling, down in my gut something was wrong. I ran outside, and Lizzie had killed Molly, and the knife was….it had blood dripping from it, and she was so close to Judith. I swear I could hear Lori telling me that I promised to protect Judith. I jumped over the porch, and down to Judith. I was trying to tell Lizzie that it would be useless to kill Judith, to distract her. I can't honestly tell you what I said, because I was so focused, so intent, and then the next thing I knew the knife was coming at me and I grabbed her and I killed her. She was bleeding in my arms, and she was dead," she told him. "I…don't feel bad about killing anyone that I did, but Lizzie…I close my eyes and I see Lizzie. I can hardly look at Mika. Then….Uncle Merle and Bob dying, because we left people from Terminus alive. I thought that maybe if we got Carol and Beth out alive, then things would be alright. But, still someone died. I didn't even know Riley, and I wanted to kill Dawn. Then to find out about Washington…about it being nothing a lie, and now this….I don't know how much more I can take," she said sobbing.

Rick glanced at Michonne as he held Summer closer. He kissed the top of her head. "Dawn didn't mean to kill Riley, I knew it, I saw it, but I still wanted to kill her too, even though I didn't know Riley. She risked her life for part of our family, so that made her one of us. I think Beth and Noah wanted to do this for her, and I wanted to do it for them," he told his oldest daughter. "I get how you're feeling about Lizzie, I felt it when I knew I needed to kill Shane, that he was a danger to me, to you, to your mother. I would have killed him, to protect you all, but your mother saved me from that guilt and she's been living with it since that day. You did what you had to do, to protect yourself and Judith," he told her as he kissed the top of her head.

"I just feel…like we're never going to stop, that we're going to turn into the people like the Governor, like the people at Terminus," Summer told him.

Michonne turned and looked at them. "We need to stop, you can be out here to long," she told them.

TBC

Author's Note: This is why I changed Glenn from going. Summer is feeling all the pain and grief, she's a Dixon. Please review.